A study on neck pain and low back pain among the undergraduate students of a medical college in Bhopal, India

  Development of at a younger age is a potential risk of developing chronic low back pain in adulthood. The study was planned with the purpose to know the extent of the less studied musculoskeletal disorders as a health problem among Indian medical students. The study was conducted to assess the prevalence of low back and neck pain among medical students, find the associations of low back and neck pain with quality-of-life issues, self-perceived stress and lifestyle.

A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Bhopal, India from May to July 2019, total 220 medical students were randomly selected. A questionnaire including the pre-validated instruments viz.  Oswestry Disability Index, Visual Analog Scale and Perceived Stress Scale-10 were used to collect the data. Data entry was done in Microsoft Excel and was analyzed on statistical package SPSS version 23.

The overall prevalence of Low Back and Neck Pain were 49.1% and 56.4% respectively. A significant association of female gender was found with Neck and Low Back Pain. A significant negative correlation was found between body mass index and Visual Analogue Scale neck & back (p=0.003).

There was a high prevalence of low back pain and neck pain in medical students at Bhopal. Females were affected more than males. Complaint of lower back pain was more than neck pain. Playing outdoor sports and weightlifting was found to be having protective effect on low back pain and neck pain.